All Hail Software Testers.

I’ll be honest; I had no idea Software Testers existed until I became part of the software industry. When I thought about tech I was under false pretense that the developers were the only ones behind the scenes. I gave all the credit to the master minds behind the idea and the ones who coded it all. It wasn’t until I joined a software company that I realized how oblivious I was.

Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly impressed with the work software developers do— they put ideas into code and that code comes to life in the technology we interact with daily. In an ideal world, that code would come together seamlessly and our web apps and web services would work with no faults. That’s an unrealistic expectation, but fortunately that is where software testers come into play.

Quality testing is essential for a successful product. In today’s world, end-users will avoid poor performance and user-experience like the plague. In order to make a positive impression on users, applications should be intuitive, reliable and practically defect-free.

Software testers play a critical role in ensuring an application works exactly as it should. User-experience is a top priority and software testers are the voice of end-users during the quality testing process. They help ensure a product meets user expectations, functions correctly and performs consistently. Perfection is a high standard for the short time frame software has to undergo quality testing, but software testers have a keen eye for catching bugs prior to deployment. This prevents us, the end users, from running into defects during our interaction with the product.

I’m guilty of becoming impatient and annoyed when an application or website isn’t performing at the rate I expect it to… and I know I’m not the only one who reacts this way. Just check out The Cost of Poor Performance— 47% of online users expect a web page to load in two seconds or less; that’s a serious expectation for how complex webpages have become!

Besides load time, what about functionality? If I open up my Uber app, will my location be pinpointed? Will I be able to request an Uber and track my driver’s status in real time? Can I request a refund if an inadequate route is taken? There are a lot of high expectations tied to applications and it’s imperative that these expectations are known and tested thoroughly.

Imagine your user experience if quality testing wasn’t a common practice. We’d be living a world of technological frustration (oh, the misery)! So the next time you whip out your smartphone, rely on Google Maps for guiding you home, or find yourself praising Spotify for a motivational playlist… go ahead and mentally high-five the software developers, but don’t forget to appreciate the software testers who made sure your user-experience was exceptional.